Nationalist Karol Nawrocki wins Polish presidency

Nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki won Poland's presidential election against Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, official results showed on Monday, in a major blow for the country's pro-EU government.

With all ballots counted, the national election commission said Nawrocki won 50.89 percent against 49.11 percent for Trzaskowski in Sunday's runoff election, whose results make plain the polarisation in the NATO and EU country.

Nawrocki is a 42-year-old admirer of US President Donald Trump.

His win would block the government's progressive agenda for abortion and LGBTQ rights and could revive tensions with Brussels over rule of law issues.

It could also undermine strong ties with neighbouring Ukraine as he is critical of Kyiv's EU and NATO accession plans and wants to cut benefits for Ukrainian refugees.

Nawrocki visited the White House during his campaign and said he had been told by Trump: "You will win."

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also endorsed Nawrocki when she attended a conservative conference in Poland last week, saying: "He needs to be the next president."

- 'Catholic values' -

Polish presidents have some influence over foreign and defence policy and wield veto power over legislation, which can only be overturned by a three-fifths majority in parliament that the government does not have.

Reforms planned by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a former European Council president who came to power in 2023, have been held up by a deadlock with the current nationalist incumbent President Andrzej Duda.

Many Nawrocki supporters said they want stricter curbs on immigration and advocate conservative social values and more sovereignty for the country within the European Union. The Nawrocki victory could embolden the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023.

Some analysts have predicted it could lead to fresh parliamentary elections if a political deadlock with the government persists.

Nawrocki's campaign was overshadowed at times by controversies over the circumstances in which he bought an apartment from an elderly man and his football hooligan past.

A former amateur boxer, Nawrocki also strongly denied media reports in the last days of the campaign that he had procured sex workers while working as a security guard at a hotel.

His opposition to Ukraine's NATO membership also brought heavy criticism from Ukrainian officials.

Nawrocki used his last campaign hours on Friday to leave flowers at a monument to Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II.

"It was a genocide against the Polish people," he said.

Poland is an EU and NATO member and a fast-growing economy of 38 million people with a leading role in international diplomacy surrounding Ukraine.

It is also a key supply route for Western arms and aid going into Ukraine.

© Agence France-Presse